Initializing relationships between devices in a network

ABSTRACT

A relationship initiation between devices in a network is described. According to one embodiment, persona information is exchanged between devices in a network. Based upon the persona information, a user of a device may initiate a relationship with another device.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/371,183, filed Apr. 08, 2002, incorporated herein byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] This invention relates generally to networked devices, and moreparticularly to the initiation of relationships between devices.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE/PERMISSION

[0003] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document containsmaterial, which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright ownerhas no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patentdocument or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever. The following notice applies to thesoftware and data as described below and in the drawings hereto:Copyright © 2002, Sony Electronics, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The Internet has created the ability for many new types ofvirtual communities. Online communities exist for all sorts of reasons,including; product reviews, shared interests, socialization and theselling or auctioning of goods and services to name a few. Theseservices are currently centralized, server-based services. Beingcentralized (e.g., hosted on a single server or group of servers) makesit easy for the service to poll the activity level and generate reportsor displays of the current community status and activity. In contrast, adecentralized service does not provide for a service to generate reportsand display decentralized information as with the centralized service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] Persona information is exchanged between devices in a network.Based upon the persona information, a user of a device may initiate arelationship with another device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006]FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a peer-to-peer networkenvironment;

[0007]FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a method for initiating arelationship between devices on the network;

[0008]FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a user interface;

[0009]FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of a method for initiatingrelationships between devices on the network;

[0010]FIG. 5 illustrates a computer system according to one embodimentof the invention; and

[0011]FIG. 6 illustrates a relationship initialization softwarecomponent.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0012] In the following detailed description of embodiments of theinvention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements, and in which is shown by way ofillustration specific embodiments in which the invention may bepracticed. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail toenable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is tobe understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical,mechanical, electrical, functional and other changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. The followingdetailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense,and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appendedclaims.

[0013]FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a peer-to-peer networkenvironment (100) that is layered on top of a standard network 40, suchas a Wide-Area Network (WAN) or a Local-Area Network (LAN). Each devicenode connected to the network 40 may be logically coupled through thenetwork 40 to any of the other nodes on the network 40 to form thepeer-to-peer network environment 100. Each node may correspond to one ormore physical devices. As illustrated, the peer-to-peer networkenvironment 100 includes device 5, device 10, device 15, device 20,device 25, device 30 and device 35. Each device is at least capable ofperforming peer-to-peer communications with the other devicesfunctioning as peers in the network environment 100. Peer-to-peercommunications includes the sharing of computer resources and servicesby direct exchange between peer devices (or indirectly though anintermediate peer device). These resources and services may include theexchange of information, processing cycles, cache storage and diskstorage for files among other examples, although all of the resourcesand services are not required to be present on each peer device.Therefore, each device 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 in the network 100may initiate a peer-to-peer communications session in the networkenvironment 100.

[0014] Each device also has the capability of identifying devices itwould like to communicate or initiate a relationship with, to discoverdevices entering and leaving the network environment 100 (discoveryprocess) and to determine what communications protocol is being used inthe network environment 100. For example, communication between peerdevices may be via a wire and/or wireless protocol, such as TCP/IP,Bluetooth, 802.11x protocols commonly referred to as WiFi (WirelessFidelity) and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), which are used toexchange data across mobile telephone networks, among othercommunication protocols well known in the art.

[0015] The devices 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 may include mobiledevices such as a personal digital assistance (PDA), a mobile phone, aportable computer, a pager and a portable music player (e.g., MP3player), among other devices. Alternatively, the devices 5, 10, 15, 20,25, 30 and 35 may include typical non-mobile devices, such as a desktopcomputer, a home entertainment system, a set-top box and a gamingsystem, among other examples. An exemplary embodiment of a suitabledevice is described below in conjunction with FIG. 5.

[0016] It will be appreciated that the peer-to-peer network environment100 illustrated in FIG. 1 does not limit the configuration of networksin which the embodiments of the invention may operate. For example, oneof skill will readily appreciate that a server may be coupled to thepeer-to-peer network to provide centralized services to the peerdevices. Furthermore, one of skill in the art will immediatelyunderstand that more than one peer-to-peer network environment may belayered on the same underlying network structure and that each peerdevice may participate in multiple peer-to-peer network environmentssimultaneously.

[0017] Each device 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 also includesrelationship initiation software 50 that facilitates the creation,sharing, modifying and deletion of persona information, as will bedescribed. Persona information may reflect the personality, behaviors,habits and personal interests of a user of each device. For example, thepersona information for a user of a device may include a set ofattributes such as an artist list, a song list, a favorite song list, afavorite artist list, rating of users, comments on songs, an interestlist (e.g., vegetarian, chess player, etc.), among other attributes thatrelate to the user. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethat numerous attributes may be used and the invention is not limited toonly those described herein.

[0018] In one embodiment, persona information associated with a user ofa device is automatically collected. For example, a list of interests ofa user of the device 5 may be automatically generated by recording theweb sites, the user visits, the music the user listens to, the films theuser watches, etc. The persona information may be stored as public andprivate persona information relating to the user of the device.

[0019] The relationship initiation software 50 on each device 5, 10, 15,20, 25, 30 and 35 also allows the user of each device to initiate arelationship and store persona information from one or more of the otherusers of the devices on the network, as will be described. For example,a user may seek to initiate a relationship with another user byinitiating a conversation (e.g., querying others for a restaurantrecommendation, initiating an instant messaging session, etc.), to sharedigital content of common interest (e.g., music, poetry, literature,films, pictures, etc.), etc. Furthermore, depending on the type ofrelationship that is generated between the users, a level of trust maybe built and visually displayed, as will be described.

[0020] It should also be understood that a relationship might beinitiated by a user (e.g., a user determines whether to initiate aninstant messaging session with another user on another device) orautomatically by a device (e.g., a device automatically determines amusical piece to play based on a favorite list of another user having acommon interest in music).

[0021]FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a method (200 and 201)executed by device 5 on the network 100 to initiate a relationship. Inthis embodiment, each device on the network 100 may broadcast anoverview message to initiate a relationship between the devices, as willbe described. In an alternative embodiment, the device may broadcast aquery message onto the network 100 to each device. The query message mayinclude a question, such as, “Does anyone recommend any nice vegetarianrestaurants in San Francisco?” Upon receiving a reply, the originatingdevice may weigh the reply, as will be described.

[0022] Although the description describes embodiments of the inventionthat use messages to communicate between the devices, it should beunderstood that messages as described herein may include numerousmessage configurations based on the communication protocol being used.Furthermore, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize thatother mechanisms may be used to initiate relationships that do notinclude messages and are not described herein as to not obscure thedescription.

[0023] A dotted line 202 in FIG. 2 separates the processing of device 5and device 10. The method 201 illustrated for device 5 will transmit theinitial overview message and the method 200 illustrated for device 10shows an example of a process flow to receive the overview message.However, it should be understood that any of the devices might send theinitial overview message or receive an overview message from anotherdevice.

[0024] At block 205, the device 5 generates an overview message. Theoverview message may include a subset or all of the persona informationassociated with the user of device 5. For example, the overview messagemay include personal interests of the user of device 5, such as being achess player. The overview message may also include a query to the otherusers on the network. For example, the overview message may ask theother users on the network “Does anyone know of any nice vegetarianrestaurants in San Francisco?”

[0025] At block 208, the device 5 broadcasts the overview message to theother devices on the network.

[0026] At block 210, the device 10 on the network 100 receives theoverview message. Alternatively, it is understood that the overviewmessage may be received by any one of the devices on the network 100. Atblock 215, the device 10 also analyzes the overview message. Forexample, the device 10 may analyze the overview message to determineareas of common interest with the user of device 5. The device 10 mayalso analyze the message to determine whether to answer the query. Basedon the information included in the message the user of device 10 maydecide to reply.

[0027] At block 217, the device 10 determines whether to reply to theoverview message. If the device 10 determines not to reply to theoverview message, control passes to block 218. If the device 10determines to reply to the overview message, control passes to block220.

[0028] At block 218, the device 10 does nothing in response to receivingthe overview message and/or query. The device may automaticallydetermine not to reply to the overview message based on the personainformation received in the overview message. Alternatively, the user ofthe device 10 may not have an answer for the query.

[0029] At block 220, the device 10 generates a reply message andautomatically replies directly to the device 5. The device 10 may replydirectly with the device 5 based on an identifier included in theoverview message received from the device 5. For example, the identifiermay be an IP address associated with the device 5 that identifies thedevice 5 on the network 100. The reply message may include the subset orentire persona information of the user of device 10. For example, thereply message may include the personal interest of the user of device10.

[0030] The device 10 may also decide to store in the reply message, asuggestion of another interest it assumes the user of device 5 mightconsider interesting based on the persona information received fromdevice 5. For example, device 10 may assume that device 5 might enjoy agame of Checkers based on device 5's interest in the game of Chess, andinclude this suggestion in the reply message to device 5.

[0031] The reply message may also include an answer to the query. Forexample, the user of device 10 may suggest a vegetarian restaurant, orthe device 10 may include in the reply message a copy of a favoritevegetarian restaurant list of the user of device 10.

[0032] In one embodiment, the device 10 may initiate a relationshipdirectly with device 5 upon analyzing the overview message at block 215.For example, the user of device 10 may include in the reply message anindication to initiate a relationship to play a game of Chess.

[0033] At block 225, the device 5 receives the reply message from thedevice 10.

[0034] At block 230, the device 5 stores the persona information ofdevice 10 into a data store (e.g., a database). The data store may be ondevice 5 or on another remote device. In this way, the device 5 maycontain the persona information from one or more devices on the network.If the persona information is stored on another remote device, the userof device 5 may link to the data on the other device.

[0035] At block 240, the device 5 analyzes the persona information ofdevice 10. For example, device 5 may automatically determine a sharedinterest of the user of device 5 and device 10. Device 5 may presentautomatically the shared interest to the user via a user interface onthe device 5.

[0036] In one embodiment, the device 5 generates a visualization of oneor more of the devices on the network that share a common interest withthe device 5. That is, the device 5 may generate a visualization of asub community of the entire network of devices at variable resolutionsand time dynamics. The user interface may show network relationshipsamong the various devices.

[0037]FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a user interface 300 todisplay the state and activities of devices on the network 100. Userinterface 300 includes a classic jazz indicia 305 and a Chess indicia310. The classic jazz indicia 305 includes a representation of thedevice 10 and device 20 that share the same interest of classic jazzwith the user of device 5. The Chess indicia 310 includes arepresentation of the device 10 that shares the same interest of Chesswith the user of device 5. The representations may be displayed withvarious color codes to indicate expertise or level of trust. Forexample, the user interface 300 may illustrate device 10 having thecolor red, in the classic jazz indicia 305, which may indicate the userof the associated device 10 is an ardent listener of classic jazz. Theuser interface 300 may illustrate device 10 having the color green inthe Chess indicia 310 to indicate a novice Chess player. Also, variousvisual color and patterns may be used to indicate a level of trustbetween the users of the devices. For example, the user interface 300may illustrate the device 10 in the classic jazz indicia 305 withvertical parallel lines to indicate a high level of trust whenexchanging music files. This trust level may be used to give more weightto a user's answers to questions, to determine when to initiate arelationship, or when to reply to an overview message.

[0038] It should be understood that the user interface 300 might includeany number of possible visualizations based on the attributes of thepersona information to represent similar relationships between users ofdevices on the network. A few examples are content or network maps, ananimated grid of pixels that change color and blink rates depending oncontent type and activity, and status displays that show the users,exchange volume and appropriateness of content accessible from the peerdevices on the network 100, among other examples.

[0039] The visualization may be interactive, allowing the individual todrill down on areas of interest to learn more and possibly initiate newrelationships. Application software on each device may also includetransactional tools that enable the sharing, playing and purchasing ofnetwork content.

[0040] At block 250, the device 5 initiates a relationship with one ormore devices on the network. For example, the user may initiate a fileswapping protocol to share music, literature, poetry, a film, etc. Inanother example, the user may initiate a conversation session with theone or more devices of the network via email, instant messaging, a chatroom, etc. The user may also initiate a gaming session to, for example,play a game of Chess with a user having the same skill level on thenetwork 100.

[0041] It should be understood that each device on the network 100 maypost their persona information for other devices on the network toanalyze and possibly initiate a relationship based on the personainformation, as described in one embodiment above. The device 10 mayalso automatically include in the reply message a description of thecurrent activity on the device 10. For example, the device 10 mayindicate the user of device 10 is currently listening to classic jazz orplaying a game of Chess against the device 10. Again, upon receiving thereply message, the user of device 10 may determine to initiate arelationship based on the current activity of a device on the network.

[0042]FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of a process flow (400) forinitiating relationships between devices on the network 100. In thisembodiment, an originating device generates a polling query message tobe passed to each device on the network 100 to initiate a relationshipbetween one or more devices, as will be described. The process flow 400is divided by a dotted line 402 to show the separation of the processingof device 5 and device 10 on the network 100.

[0043] At block 405, the device 5 generates a polling query message tobe shared with each device on the network 100. The polling query messagemay include a subset or the entire persona information of the device 5,such as being a Chess player.

[0044] At block 410, the device 5 transmits the polling query message todevice 10 on the network 100.

[0045] At block 415, the device 10 receives the polling query message.

[0046] At block 420, the device 10 analyzes the polling query message.For example, the device 10 may analyze the polling query message todetermine areas of common interest with the user of device 5.

[0047] At block 425, the device 10 determines whether to indicate awillingness to initiate a relationship with the device 5. If, at block425, the device 10 chooses not to indicate a willingness to initiate arelationship with device 5, control passes to block 430. If, at block425, the device 10 chooses to indicate a willingness to initiate arelationship with device 5, control passes to block 435.

[0048] At block 430, the device 10 does nothing in response to receivingthe polling query message from the other devices. That is, the device 10ignores the polling query message and forwards the message to the nextdevice on the network.

[0049] At block 435, the device 10 stores a subset or all of the personainformation for the user of the device 10 into the polling querymessage.

[0050] At block 440, the device 10 determines which device is next toreceive the polling query message from device 10. If there is anotherdevice on the network 100 to receive the polling query message from thedevice 10, control is passed to block 445. If there is not anotherdevice on the network 100 to receive the polling query message, controlpasses to block 450.

[0051] At block 445, the device 10 determines whether to transmit thepolling query message to a device that has not received the pollingquery message from device 5. It should be understood that, in oneembodiment, when the next device (e.g., device 15) receives the pollingquery message it would follow a similar process flow as started at block415, as illustrated by dotted line 447. In this way, each device maystore persona information into the polling query message.

[0052] At block 450, the device 10 transmits the polling query messageto the originating device 5.

[0053] At block 455, the device 5 receives the polling query message.

[0054] At block 460, the device 5 stores the persona information fromthe one or more devices into a data store (e.g., database). That datastore may be on device 5 or on another remote device. In this way, thedevice 5 may contain the persona information from one or more devices onthe network 100.

[0055] At block 465, the device 5 analyzes the returned polling querymessage. For example, the device 5 may build a model of the currentcommunity activity and areas of shared interest, as described above.

[0056] At block 475, the device 5 initiates and sends a negotiationquery message to one or more devices that indicate a willingness toinitiate a relationship. The relationship may be based on sharedinterest between the users of the devices. For example, the user ofdevice 5 may chose to initiate a relationship with device 10 to play aChess game using application software on each device.

[0057] It should be appreciated that the process flow 400 may be able tocommunicate with devices a further distance than which may be achievedvia the broadcast process flow 200. Because a message is passed to eachdevice, one device may be able to pass the message outside the localarea network of the originating device. For example, an intermediatedevice in the path may be a gateway type device that connects two localarea networks.

[0058]FIG. 6 illustrates components of the relationship initiationsoftware 50 to be performed by a processor. The relationship initiationsoftware 50 includes a message generation component 610, a messageanalyzer component 620, a relationship initialization component 630, amessage transmission component 640, a message retrieval component 650, auser interface component 660 and a data store component 670.

[0059] The message generation component 610 includes softwareinstructions to generate messages (e.g., an overview message, a replymessage, a polling query message, a negotiation message, etc.), asdescribed above for FIGS. 2 and 4. The message analyzer component 620includes software instructions to analyze the messages (e.g., anoverview message, a reply message, a polling query message, anegotiation message, etc.) exchanged between the devices on the network100, as described above for FIGS. 2 and 4. The relationshipinitialization component 630 includes software instructions to initiatea relationship between devices on the network 100, as described above inFIGS. 2 and 4. The message transmission component 640 includes softwareinstructions to transmit a message from a device on the network 100, asdescribed for FIG. 5. The message retrieval component 650 includessoftware instructions to receive a message from a device on the network100, as described for FIG. 5. The user interface component 660 includessoftware instructions to generate a visualization of the network 100, asdescribed for FIG. 3. A data store component 670 includes softwareinstructions to store and retrieve persona information from a datastore, as described for FIGS. 2, 4 and 5.

[0060] One embodiment of a system suitable for use in the environmentsof FIG. 1 is illustrated in FIG. 5. The system 540 includes a processor550, a memory 555 and input/output capability 560 coupled to a systembus 565. The memory 555 is configured to store instructions which, whenexecuted by the processor 550, perform the methods described herein. Thememory 555 may also store data for performing the method(s) described inFIGS. 2 and 4. Input/output 560 provides for the delivery and display ofthe data for performing the methods(s) described in FIGS. 2 and 4 orportions or representations thereof. Input/output 560 also encompassesvarious types of machine or computer-readable media, including any typeof storage device that is accessible by the processor 550. One of skillin the art will immediately recognize that the term “computer-readablemedium/media” or “machine-readable medium/media” further encompasses acarrier wave that encodes a data signal. It will also be appreciatedthat the computer is controlled by operating system software executingin memory 555. Input/output and related media 560 stores themachine/computer-executable instructions for the operating system andmethods of the present invention, as well as the data for performing themethods described in FIGS. 2 and 4. Input/output 560 may also includecomponents to transmit and receive a message to/from one or more deviceson the network 100 (e.g., via a network card, a modem and a fax card,among other examples).

[0061] The description of FIG. 5 is intended to provide an overview ofcomputer hardware and various operating environments suitable forimplementing the invention, but is not intended to limit the applicableenvironments. It will be appreciated that the system 540 is one exampleof many possible devices that have different architectures. A typicaldevice will usually include at least a processor, a memory and a buscoupling the memory to the processor. Such a configuration encompassespersonal computer systems, network computers, television-based systems,such as Web TVs or set-top boxes, handheld devices, such as cell phonesand personal digital assistants, and similar devices. One of skill inthe art will immediately appreciate that the invention can be practicedwith other system configurations, including multiprocessor systems,minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. The invention can alsobe practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks areperformed by remote processing devices that are linked through acommunications network.

[0062] It will be appreciated that more or fewer processes may beincorporated into the methods illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 4 withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention and that no particular orderis implied by the arrangement of blocks shown and described herein.Describing the methods by reference to a flow diagram enables one ofordinary skill in the art to develop such programs including suchinstructions to carry out the methods on suitably configured computers(the processor of the computer executing the instructions fromcomputer-readable media, including memory). The computer-executableinstructions may be written in a computer programming language or may beembodied in firmware logic. If written in a programming languageconforming to a recognized standard, such instructions can be executedon a variety of hardware platforms and for interface to a variety ofoperating systems. In addition, the present invention is not describedwith reference to any particular programming language. It will beappreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used toimplement the teachings of the invention as described herein.Furthermore, it is common in the art to speak of software, in one formor another (e.g., program, procedure, process, application, module,logic, etc.), as taking an action or causing a result. Such expressionsare merely a shorthand way of saying that execution of the software by acomputer causes the processor of the computer to perform an action orproduce a result.

[0063] In addition to the typical software subsystems of a peer-to-peerdevice, to perform device discovery, identification and communicationsprotocol, as described above, each device on the network 100 may includerelationship initialization software components.

[0064] A relationship initiation between devices in a networkenvironment has been described. It should be understood that each deviceon the network 100 might share persona information. In this way, eachdevice may also generate a visualization of the community with a userinterface or analyze the network to determine whether to initiate arelationship with other devices having similar discovered interests.Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the artthat any arrangement that is calculated to achieve the same purpose maybe substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This application isintended to cover any adaptations or variations of the presentinvention.

[0065] While the invention is not limited to any particularimplementation, for the sake of clarity a simplified method and systemfor initiating relationships between devices has been described. Forexample, those of ordinary skill within the art will appreciate that adevice may include multiple users. Each user of a single device has thecapability to store individual persona information, which may be used toinitiate a relationship with users of other devices on the network.Furthermore, the terminology used in this application with respect to“message” is meant to include any protocol to communicate betweendevices. Therefore, it is manifestly intended that this invention belimited only by the following claims and equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computerized method: communicating personainformation associated with a first user from a first device to a seconddevice on a network; receiving persona information associated with asecond user of the second device; and initiating a relationship betweenthe first and second devices based on the persona information associatedwith the second user.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein communicatingpersona information includes broadcasting the persona informationassociated with the first user to a plurality of devices.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein communicating persona information includestransmitting a first message from the first device to the second devicefor forwarding to a third device.
 4. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising: receiving the first message from the third device, the firstmessage including persona information associated with a third userassociated with the third device.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising analyzing the persona information of the second user of thefirst device for a common interest.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: generating a visualization of the second device based on thepersona information associated with the second user.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein initiating a relationship includes swapping anelectronic file with the second device.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein initiating a relationship includes initializing an instantmessaging session with the second user.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the initiating a relationship includes initializing a gamingsession with the second user.
 10. A machine-readable medium havingexecutable instructions to cause a device to perform a methodcomprising: communicating persona information associated with a firstuser from a first device to a second device on a network; receivingpersona information associated with a second user of the second device;and initiating a relationship between the first and second devices basedon the persona information associated with the second user.
 11. Themachine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein communicating personainformation includes broadcasting the persona information associatedwith the first user to a plurality of devices.
 12. The machine-readablemedium of claim 10, wherein communicating persona information includestransmitting a first message from the first device to the second devicefor forwarding to a third device.
 13. The machine-readable medium ofclaim 12, further comprising: receiving the first message from the thirddevice, the first message including persona information associated witha third user associated with the third device.
 14. The machine-readablemedium of claim 10, further comprising: analyzing the personainformation of the second user of the first device for a commoninterest.
 15. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, furthercomprising: generating a visualization of the second device based on thepersona information associated with the second user.
 16. Themachine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein initiating a relationshipincludes swapping an electronic file with the second device.
 17. Themachine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein initiating a relationshipincludes initializing an instant messaging session with the second user.18. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the initiating arelationship includes initializing a gaming session with the seconduser.
 19. A device comprising: a processor coupled to a memory through abus; and a relationship initiation process executed by the processorfrom the memory to cause the processor to communicate personainformation associated with a first user to a first device on a network,the first device being one of a plurality of devices on the network, toreceive persona information associated with a second user of the firstdevice, and to initiate a relationship between the first device based onthe persona information associated with the second user of the firstdevice.
 20. The device of claim 19, wherein the relationship initiationprocess further causes the processor to broadcast the personainformation associated with the first user to the plurality of devices.21. The device of claim 19, wherein the relationship initiation processfurther causes the processor to transmit a first message to the firstdevice, wherein the first device is to forward the first message to asecond device, the second device being one of the plurality of deviceson the network.
 22. The device of claim 21, the relationship initiationprocess further causes the processor, when transmitting the firstmessage, to receive the first message from the second device, the firstmessage including persona information associated with a third userassociated with the second device.
 23. The device of claim 19, therelationship initiation process further causes the processor to analyzethe persona information of the second user of the first device for acommon interest.
 24. The device of claim 19, the relationship initiationprocess further causes the processor to generate a visualization of thefirst device based on the persona information associated with the seconduser of the first device.
 25. The device of claim 19, wherein therelationship initiation process further causes the processor, wheninitiating a relationship, to swap an electronic file with the firstdevice.
 26. The device of claim 19, wherein the relationship initiationprocess further causes the processor, when initiating a relationship, toinitiate an instant messaging session with the second user of the firstdevice.
 27. The device of claim 19, wherein the relationship initiationprocess further causes the processor, when initiating a relationship, toinitiate a gaming session with the second user of the first device. 28.An apparatus comprising: means for exchanging persona information with afirst device; and means for initializing a relationship with the firstdevice based on the exchanged persona information, the means forexchanging coupled with the means for initializing.
 29. The apparatus ofclaim 28, wherein the means for exchanging comprises: a means fortransmitting a first message to the first device, the first message toinclude the persona information of a user of the apparatus; and a meansfor receiving a reply message from the first device, the reply messageto include the persona information of a user of the first device. 30.The apparatus of claim 28, further comprising: a means for analyzing thepersona information received in the reply message.
 31. The apparatus ofclaim 30, wherein the means for analyzing includes visualizing thepersona information via a user interface.
 32. The apparatus of claim 28,wherein the means for initializing a relationship includes a means forperforming a conversation over the network between the device and theapparatus.
 33. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the means forinitializing a relationship includes a means for swapping a content fileover the network between the device and the apparatus.
 34. The apparatusof claim 28, wherein the means for initializing a relationship includesa means for performing a gaming session over the network between thedevice and the apparatus.